our two governments maintain not just the formal u.s.israel strategic dialogue, but a daily dialogue, sometimes an hourly dialogue, at every level. in a season of tight budgets, u.s. assistance to israel is at a record high. and over the past few weeks, i have heard from israelis the gratitude they felt when, after hearing the sirens, they saw a second rocket launch, and knew that was iron dome, making them safer. america has helped keep israel's qualitative military edge as strong as ever. and prime minister netanyahu has described our security cooperation and overall partnership with israel as "unprecedented." our shared obsession with innovation is also bringing us closer together. google executive chairman eric schmidt recently called israel "the most important high tech center in the world, after the united states." so it is no surprise that our diplomatic challenge is not only about a dialogue of strategic and political interests, including not just our soldiers and our politicians, but increasingly including our techies and our venture capitalists and our entrepreneurs. since i